The Birmingham Genealogical Society was organized March 15, 1959. It was organized exclusively for educational and research purposes, and to foster preservation of genealogical and historical material. We are located in Jefferson County, Alabama, USA.

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Google Earth for Genealogy – Google Earth is a 360 degree three dimensional way to view your ancestor’s world! In this class you will learn how to identify old photos, plot and virtually visit your ancestor’s homestead, and incorporate historic maps. Google Earth has the power to geographically document your ancestor’s lives, and lends itself very well to collaboration with other researchers. It’s one of the best online genealogical tools available, and best of all, Google Earth is FREE!

Lisa Louise Cooke is the owner of Genealogy Gems, a multi-media production company, and host of The Genealogy Gems Podcast at http://www.genealogygems.com. She’s the author of four books including Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse and The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, producer of the video series Google Earth for Genealogy, an international speaker, and a regular contributor to Family Tree Magazine.

The Webinar is free, but you must register to get your personal sign-in code. Visit the GGS website to sign up (click on “register and view our schedule”). If you cannot attend the webinar at the 8PM time, many of the webinars are archived in the members-only section of the website.

Search all U.S. Censuses free
From August 29th through September 3rd, Ancestry.com is opening all of its U.S. census records (1790 – 1940) – FREE. Go to www.ancestry.com/census to learn more and start searching.

Take a trip back in time
Go beyond searching your family’s true story in the census records and see what your own life could have been like as an adult in 1940 with the Ancestry.com Time Machine. Our interactive, time-travel experience requires just a handful of information provided by you. And in return, you get a custom video featuring YOU in 1940. While it’s not genealogy, it is high-tech fun. Create your own video and share it with your friends and family. And encourage them to create their own at www.ancestry.com/TimeMachine.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars are offered by Millenia Corporation, makers of the family tree software, Legacy Family Tree. The next FREE webinar is August 29, 2012 given by Judy G. Russell, CG, on “Building a Family Tree from Circumstantial Evidence.” You can register for the webinar here. I recommend registering even if the time is not convenient as the webinars are available as FREE recorded sessions after the live event for several days.

Our friends at FamilySearch announced last night that the indexing and arbitration of the 1940 U.S. Census is now complete! It will take a few weeks for all the remaining states to come online, but when it is done we will have (2) independent indexes for the 1940 Census– Ancestry.com and the Familysearch.org (shared by many other sites). (Maybe when the all states come online from the FamilySearch indexing project I will finally find my grandfather’s brothers!)

Don’t despair if you are sad that there are no records to index. Familysearch.org is starting another “Community Project” — the US Immigration & Naturalization Community Project. This project will index passenger lists from all the major US ports, so there will be something in this project for everyone. Just look for the “US (Community Project)” label on all record sets belonging to this new project.

I would personally like to say “THANK YOU” to all the contributors who supported the Birmingham Genealogical Society in the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. I hope we can continue to index as a group supporting the other “Community Projects.” I will post the “final” statistics of the records indexed and arbitrated for the group during the 1940 Census project later on the BGS Facebook page. If you would like to join the group and index other Community Projects, you can find details on how to join and get started here.

One that will be of interest of most viewing this blog are the “Alabama, County Estate Records…” — not every county is represented at this time, but there are enough to allow you to spend days downloading and viewing estate records. The records in this collection seem to be from the microfilm of the “Loose Records Project” completed in all counties just a few years ago. The records are not fully searchable, but are organized by County and Last Name. I have noticed in more than one county that the papers imaged under a particular name, may not always be for that individual. Of course, there are the “mixing” of same names, but I have also seen a Robinson estate mixed in with the estate of a Williams. Additionally, check for records filmed under the name of the administrator/executor or even under the heirs.

The following was received from our friends in the Southern History Department at the Birmingham Public Library. Please help them by taking the survey.

If you have not had a chance to do so, please remember to take our survey for the Beyond the Basics of Genealogy 2012.

Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season.

Southern History Department
Birmingham Public Library

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We had a great first year with our Beyond the Basics of Genealogy series of workshops. We’re looking at developing our classes for next year, and we need your input. Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out our survey, and be sure to be on the lookout for our classes in 2012.
Thanks!